Africa SIG Bantaba

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

Africa SIG Bantaba @ CIES 2019

Theme: Decolonizing Education for Sustainability: African perspectives

Background

In 2016-2017, the Africa SIG’s Executive Committee, in collaboration with several regular members of the SIG, created a vision for a Bantaba and the first Africa SIG Bantaba was held at CIES 2017. Conceived as an invited session, with a theme connected to the overarching theme of the CIES conference, the proposed event is rooted in an African model of gathering together for discussion and deliberation about issues of common concern and interest, where all participants have a say.

Decolonizing Education for Sustainability

The theme for the 2019 Bantaba is Decolonizing Education for Sustainability. This theme was inspired, among other considerations, by an issue that emerged from the 2017 Bantaba. One of the invited speakers, Nii Addy from McGill University, had argued that one of the fundamental problems that we need to address arises from “the need to help the younger generation to imagine and create an Africa that the older generation cannot even imagine, because we have been conditioned by our colonial and other related experiences.” Along the same lines, another invited speaker, Michael Cross from the University of Johannesburg, laid emphasis on the role of knowledge and universities in Africa. The key role universities should play, he argued, is “to learn from our past, look inwards because of the complexities of our countries and look outward, although it is difficult to control the future […] We need to deal with the issues of colonial bondage and misguided borrowing.”

The arguments by these two invited speakers, which resonated with other speakers and participants in the aforementioned Bantaba, capture two interrelated premises about the role of education, i.e., a decolonized education can contribute toward breaking the colonial bondage (even that of our inherited colonial-fashioned educational systems) and, consequently, to/toward sustainability.

Approach and structure

a) Pre-CIES engagement: The invited contributors (see list below) will provide short pieces (3-5 pages) in response to the theme by the end of January 2019. They may, for instance, wish to address questions such as ‘what reflections does this theme inspire from me?’ ‘How might a decolonized education in Africa look like?’ ‘What might an implementation of a decolonized education in Africa require?’ ‘How can it contribute to sustainability on the continent?’ etc. In other words, each contribution will have a focus that is clearly pertinent to the theme of the Bantaba.

b) Synthesis: Once all the contribution are received, a small team of ASIG members will be tasked to read them and prepare a synthesis, a commentary and a set of issues (grouped around sub-themes) that will be the spark plug of the bulk of the Bantaba session. The synthesis will be made available to the contributors in advance in order for them to prepare additional reflective comments that they will deliver during the session.

c) Structure of the session: The Bantaba will incorporate the equivalent of the two Africa SIG Highlighted sessions, scheduled back-to-back. The session will have two parts. The first part will start with introductory remarks by the chair and additional (live or pre-recorded) comments by invited contributors (first half hour). This will be followed by a first round of breakout sessions (about 40 minutes), and a plenary to share and discuss (about 20 minutes). Before the coffee/tea break, participants will be provided with instructions for the second round of breakout sessions (about 40 minutes). Following this second round, the full group will come together again for a final plenary (20-30 minutes) to share, discuss and agree on follow up actions/steps. One or two contributors present will moderate each breakout group, which will have a designated rapporteur.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Africa

Chair

• Martial Dembélé, University of Montreal

Individual Presentations

• Decolonizing Education for Sustainability: African perspectives - Chizoba Imoka, OISE, University of Toronto; Heba EL-Deghaidy, American University in Cairo; Jose Cossa, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University; Walden University; Kabba Colley, William Paterson University; Malak Zaalouk, The American University in Cairo; Michael Cross, University of Johannesburg; N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba, Cornell University; Nii Addy, McGill University; Geeta Balli Motilal, University of Witwatersrand

Discussants

• Mary Drinkwater, OISE, University of Toronto

• Anne Mungai, Adelphi University

• Ademola Alabi Akinrinola, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Laura Quaynor, Lewis University

• Rebecca Y. Bayeck, Penn State University